These 9 Steps Will Help You Build an All-Star Real Estate Team

In the real estate world, building an effective real estate team is a growing trend. Rather than working independently, real estate professionals, and even our real estate students are starting to plan ways to build teams of agents that work with them to make their business run.

These teams have one leader normally known as a “rainmaker”, then a number of support staff underneath who make things happen.

If you are considering the team approach to real estate, getting a team off the ground can be your biggest hurdle. Here are some tips for starting and growing an effective real estate team that will fuel your success.

Step 1 – Self-Evaluation

The first step in building a real estate team is your own personal self-evaluation as the potential team's future leader. What are your strengths and weaknesses? By pinpointing these, you can start building a team that will support your weaknesses and build on your strengths.

Next, consider what you need out of your real estate team. Do you need more buyer agents so you can list more properties? Are you looking for a Transaction Coordinator to help you with the paperwork on your files? Do you need help with your marketing and advertising copy? The answers to these questions will help guide you as you build out your organization.

Finally, prepare your systems. Before connecting with people for your real estate team, make sure you have a foundationally successful real estate business and know how to generate leads. One of the biggest things that potential recruits will want to know is whether or not you have a system in place to bring in leads for them to handle. Once you have a system in place, people will be more willing to buy into your vision.

Step 2 –Choose Your Professionals

Next, choose the professionals you need on your team. Your needs will vary depending on your goals and your skills and weaknesses. It will also vary depending on the structure of your team, whether you are looking to manage a team of sales professionals to support your efforts as an agent or are looking to lead a team of agents.

Some common pieces to a well oiled real estate team include:

• Buyers agents

• Contractors

• Appraisers

• Attorney

• Accountant

• Inspectors

• Copywriter

• Marketer

Make your list, and start looking for qualified individuals to fill those positions.

Note that lots of these folks don’t necessarily need to be full-time and on your direct payroll. Starting out as a new agent, you’ll want to build out a list of vendors that you know and trust to do the job right for your client.

Step 3 – Start Hiring

Now you are ready to start looking for qualified people and bringing them on to your team. Be careful about the professionals you hire. Make sure they are ready to work in a team environment and have the skills you need.The first person to bring on board as you build your team might be a virtual assistant or transaction coordinator. Your virtual assistant will manage email and office work so you can focus on the client facing aspects of your business. Your TC should ensure that your files are compliant and that all parties are receiving and signing paperwork in a timely way.

The nice thing about building out the administrative functions of your team first is that the virtual assistant can often be turned on and off as needed and the TC can be paid on an a per-file basis.

Make sure you're finding people who are a good fit for your team. One way to determine this is through personality testing. Personality testing will tell you if the person you're interviewing is a good fit for a sales-based business. Look for positive people with a passion for real estate to add to your team.

The personality testing can be critical in preventing turnover of your team. The innate personality of a buyer agent will be vastly different than someone in a dedicated administrative role.

Step 4 – Delegate, but Stay Involved

Once you have a team working well under you, start delegating responsibilities. However, make sure you stay actively involved. This is not the time to walk away from your real estate business. Instead, it's a time to jump in and lead by example. If you've hired well, you should be able to delegate responsibilities with confidence, while still taking an active role in the day-to-day operations of your real estate business.

Step 5 – Keep Recruiting

Even after your initial team is set, continue recruiting quality talent, especially talented agents. If you have proven sales systems in place with active lead generation they will be attracted to your team. Once you have them, make sure you have the right incentives to keep them invested in your team. Retention is just as important as recruiting, and you'll only retain quality people if your team provides them something of value.

Remember it is far more expensive to hire a new person than to retain an existing one.

Step 6 – Focus on Lead Generation

So what could you bring to the table that would make qualified real estate agents want to be part of your team? For many real estate teams, the answer is qualified leads. Finding a source for leads and then offering those leads to the professionals you bring on to your team is a key factor to the success of any real estate team. Your source may be direct-mail campaigns, social media postings, or other online marketing, but find a lead generator and use it well.

Step 7 – Take Care of Clients

Make sure you have a system for your team that keeps clients comfortable while they list with you. You may delegate this to one particular agent or team member, or you may have a proven system in place that each agent follows with their delegated clients. Keeping clients satisfied throughout the sales process will make your team more effective and help with your team member retention.

Step 8 – Keep Refining Your Processes

As you get the freedom to step away from the direct sales of your business, use your new time to refine your sales process for your team. Constantly evaluate what is and isn’t working and make changes and adjustments accordingly. Check with your team members regularly to ensure they are using the systems you have put in place to run their part of the business. Keep lines of communication open to ensure everyone knows what their responsibilities are and what they can expect from you.

Step 9 – Add Training as You Continue Building

After you start your team and get it moving along successfully, you may wish to grow it. Before on-boarding new licensed real estate agents or other real estate professionals, make sure you have solid training in place. Teach your new recruits what you expect and how your business operates, so they can come on board as solid, productive team members. Soon, your process will replicate itself as your team, and your income, continue to grow.
Real estate teams should allow you to make more sales and close more deals than you can do on your own. With these tips, you can build a successful team, retain the talent you recruit, and see your income continue to increase year after year.

Love,

Kartik